What we look like right now

A sweet lady in our ward offered to take Magnolia and Wendy's newborn pictures for free, but I had already set something up with another girl who offered to do them (again, free. Twins are the best!) though I have yet to see those pictures. Anyway since the newborn thing didn't work out, she was kind enough to take our family Christmas photos instead. Not only did she manage to get some where not one of the 3 kids is crying and Jacob and I look (mostly) normal, we were done in 30 minutes and she had them edited and back to me the next day. What a champ! 

And a special thanks to fruit snacks for keeping Clark in one spot for more than 12 seconds. And to my dad for making my necklace. 

And pin a rose on my nose for making my skirt, Wendy's skirt, and Maggie's headband. And the beautiful children. 

He kept wanting to lie down with the babies, because he remembered that we made him do that last time we took pictures.

And this is what we really look like. Sweatshirts and sleep sacks for days. It's a lot of work to get four people ready.

17 Weeks and Cinco de Mayo

Aside from the size of my belly, really not much has changed this week. I love this part: I don't feel crumby, I look pregnant instead of just bloated, and am still not so big that it's hard to be comfortable. I also really love getting to feel little baby movements. I'm excited for how wild things are gonna get in there with two!

I'll even be so kind as to include my dainty profile this time ("yes, we've all got daddy's mommy's nose"):

It's nice when you're unloading groceries and remember you bought yourself a donut. And wearing pants that look like you forgot to wear pants from far away. 

 And here's the yummy Cinco de Mayo dinner Jacob made for us. We also celebrated by attending church and going to bed at 10 PM.

Clark loves our post-church photo shoots

Vain Sidenote: I HATE my hair right now. The "pixie" grew out so, so bad. Any suggestions?

Big Kids

Clark and I have both reached some pretty big milestones. He has (finally) started walking. He's being taking a few steps independently for months, but the last week or so started walking from room to room. So I will now count that as walking.
And I got my hair into an ity bity ponytail for the first time since I hacked the hairs off. This ponytail is brought to you by a tiny rubber band, 6 bobby pins, a greasy french braid, and a scarf I got from an old lady's garage sale.

And we match.

Something you won't usually catch me blogging about

but I just have to vent a little. I'm loving my internship and learning a lot. But I've noticed--especially this week as we've been promoting a new swimsuit line--people think it's ok to insult another woman's weight IF said woman is thin. Guess what? It's not.

I mean listen to some of these:

• sorry, it looks like she's wearing a back brace

  5 hours ago via mobile · Like
•  This model is disturbingly thin. Not good!
  

  5 hours ago via mobile · Like · 2

And many more about how the swimsuit wasn't flattering on her and would look so much better on someone curvy. Now just imagine the OUTRAGE if anyone dared to say "This would look a lot better on someone thinner" or "This model is disturbingly fat! Not good!". Because that would be really mean, but it goes both ways. Oh and by the way, the model was a perfectly healthy, athletic-looking woman.

First of all, some people are just thin! It doesn't mean she's starving herself or that she's "sick". Growing up, I was pretty scrawny despite loving food and treats and being fairly lazy, and that was fine (aside from occasional rude comments). Having a baby gave me hips (and boobs for a sec), and that's wonderful too! But people really, truly just come in a variety of shapes. I know it's been said a million times, but it's true. Ya, I'm sure most of us could do a little more to be our healthiest, but even if we were all on the exact same diet and exercise regimen, there would be SO MUCH variety (which we all know is the spice of life...so we should celebrate, in harmony! Thanks Ariel.).

Second of all, do we really need to point out each other's flaws? Because I'm pretty sure we all do enough of that to ourselves. I'd elaborate, but you can just go watch the end of "Mean Girls".

Last thing, enough of this "real woman" crap. I don't have to have junk in the trunk to be real. We're all "real" (unless you're a robot, sorry).

Ok, I'm done... unless you leave a snarky comment and I feel the need to defend myself.

Bright Idea and All-You-Can-Eat Ikea

Nothing too exciting happened today so I'll share some of the cool things I was doing when I forgot to blog for a long time.

First, my bright idea. In Arizona I made my sister EmmaLee come hang out with me a few times a week so I wouldn't get too bored and lonely. Well one day we started watching some of her old dance videos, and I commented on how nice it was that everyone curled their hair for the performance. She informed me that in fact everyone just had a perm.

My eldest sister and shining example

"Everyone?"
"Everyone. That's just what you did if you wanted to be cool."
This fascinated me. And got me thinking: I should get a perm. I mean, I wouldn't want to be uncool by 1990s high school standards.
Lucky for me, my other sister is Bethany. So obviously she completely followed my logic and agreed that it was a great idea. Not only that, she offered to help me do it. Really my mom ended up doing most of it since she is a pro at perms after having 5 daughters in her home during the perm craze.

the smell brought back my whole childhood

Anyway. I have yet to actually style it properly, but I'm sure once I get a pick and some gel in their, I will be Gilbert High, Class of 1994.

Just call me Grizzabella the Glamor Cat.

Something else cool happened to me after I got to California. Jacob and I went to Ikea to look for furniture and junk. Well it just so happens that the one day we wanted to actually spend a lot of money at Ikea was the day they were giving free food to anyone who spent more than $100.

Now I wish I had less shame about taking full advantage, but I guess I'm not a Smith through and through, true blue, dyed in the wool. Still a smokin deal. Just like the bright red corduroy couch with mismatched cushions we got from the as is section.

31 weeks

Here we are at 31 weeks. Time is flying!

I figured out that the Photobooth camera on the Mac adds about ten pounds, so that explains why the pictures from a few weeks ago look even bigger than these... anddd I won't be using that for full body shots anymore.
And don't be worried that I'm like "uhh, I'm so fat. I hate my body." I'm actually amazed (and maybe a little weirded out) with my body and the fact that it's capable of growing a human! It's just a little difficult to dress my drastically changing figure, especially on a student budget. Aside from that and recently being introduced to heartburn, no complaints here! (Though, my husband may tell you otherwise).

Nat gets fat

I know that the bigger I get the more uncomfortable I'll be, but I'm so ready to look obviously pregnant. I feel like I've been in this awkward, chunky stage forever.




...after eating a lot and maybe sticking it out a little, we're getting there.

mmm whatcha say?

 I almost forgot that the #1 goal of my blog is to provide Brooke Stirling more blog-stalking opportunities while she's "working". Well, she let me know that I haven't been meeting her standards lately. I apologize and assure you that I am here for your entertainment (cue Adam Lambert).

First, to address your question. I work at a place called Aqua Tots which is hard for me to say without a Wisconsin accent, which makes the name sound even dorkier than it already is. I teach swim lessons. That's all I want to say about that.

No one likes looking at a blog with no pictures. Donelle is about to have a baby.

Now I will address your boredom:

Join Goodreads. It'll take at least an hour to rate all the books you've read and make a list of books you want to read.

Read this.

Gawk here, and here, and here.

Pin stuff

Share good youtube videos with me. Also make a video for me.

Look at houses for sale in Arizona

And when all else fails, stumble.


Well that made me look pitiful (working in a computer lab has taught me well). I hope you're satisfied!

my valuable time

Why do I suddenly feel like putting on some low-rider flared jeans and flipping my hair out?
Probably because I've been watching way too much Veronica Mars. Thank goodness I have a job that lets me watch netflix all day! This is goood stuff.

The (almost) finished product

Here's my dress as of now. It's a super awkward length, so I think I'm going to bring the hemline up a few inches. Other than that, I really like it!

Favorite Things

Today I will tell you some of our favorite items of 2010. Yes, our material objects define us. So, I present ....
Jacob and Natalli's Favorite Things 2010!
Disclaimer: Nobody in the audience is getting ANYTHING today.

Since we both eat like birds, our food always goes bad. This keeps our onions fresh. hoooray



These are magic gloves. They are magic because they fit practically anyone and come in a variety of colors for only 99 cents.
We don't have a sock monkey. But we have some socks that look like the kind of socks you would make a sock monkey out of. Technically they are Jacob's, but I've been wearing them a lot lately which is causing some marital problems...but they are still our favorite!

O.M.G. We LOVE our Hi-Gliders. Feels like a crayon, writes like a highlighter without leaking to the next page! We have them in every color and they are my most valuable studying tool.

There are two kinds of people in this world: people who snug and people who don't. We are proud owners/wearers of matching Snuggies.

Catan Online World. Because it wasn't nerdy enough to play Catan every weekend with our friends..


Sister Wives is probably the most fascinatingly awkward show I have ever seen. Watch it.

We go through a 24 pack of these WAY too fast. One serving of fruit, one serving of vegetables, and soo delicious!

We didn't want to conform and get Netflix like everyone else, so we got the Blockbuster copy cat.
actually, I think we were just too lazy to cancel the free trial that came with our blue-ray player (I still don't get what a blue ray is or why we had to buy a player, but w/e)
Some of the movies that will be on our Blockbuster cue for the next month which we will watch while eating popcorn and drinking hot coacoa or chocolate milk. with our snuggies.

J- let me know if I'm forgetting anything

Ta da!

I followed a pattern all by myself. And here's the finished product...
(Don't look too closely)Here it is on my hot bod.

Stars and Stripes Forever

Yesterday morning, I decided I was going to be a good girl and go running or work out or something. Then I looked at my shoes. Not ONE pair of any kind of sporty shoes. Ok, before you judge, just know that I have been taking dance classes as my form of exercise for the past 100 years. However, since no dance classes fit into my schedule this semester, I've been a bit lazy. My jeans get tighter every time I put them on, and that scares the crap out of me.
So we made a Target run, and I got myself some fancy running shoes. Hopefully, they will get more than 2 days of use.
Motivation please? (Bethany and I had a picture similar to this on our bathroom mirror for years to motivate us to be hot. Yes, we love Fergie. Get over it.)

This is Bowie to Bowie

We beat Zelda. So bitter-sweet. Imagine how you felt when you finished reading the 7th Harry Potter, but take it down a few notches. Yep. Don't make fun, I'm being serious.

In other news, I really love bows... All over the place.

Like in this shirt I want so I can look like Sailor Moon

Also love:




Karen Carpenter+her belt, necklace from my mom, and this girl's cute ring.


Plus my legs are bowed which is kinda cool, but mostly awkward. I think I just described my whole life.

oh yeah

Today in my D&C class, this kid next to me kept staring at my hands. I started thinking he was a total freak when I suddenly remembered that my fingernails look like this:

Vivianne came over last night, and we painted each other's nails.

She also got a kick out of "photobooth".

I love her, because her favorite things to say to Jacob are "away!" and "scared". (That sounds mean, but all my nieces and nephews love him more than me...it's only fair.)

oh hey

BEFORE:


AFTER:

fish are friends. not food.